Thankfully most of the rest world recognises US patents for the bull!!!! they are and ignores them
US patents have jurisdiction only in the US, so the rest of the world doesn't need to recognise them. However, in these days of global markets, a product that can't be sold in the US can be at a disadvantage.
mm_flynn is right to point out what I overlooked, that this is a continuation patent, which means it has a priority date in 2001 in this case. In other words, it needs to be novel at that point. However, the patent claim looks to be fairly narrow and precise, and at first glance I would have thought it might be possible for other systems to avoid infringing it without losing functionality.